PepsiCo Q3 profit rises to $1.72B

PepsiCo Inc.’s profit grew 9 percent in the third quarter, boosted by higher sales volumes for its snacks.

The Purchase, N.Y.-based beverage company posted net income of $1.72 billion and earnings of $1.09 a share, up from net income of $1.58 billion and earnings of 99 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

Revenue was $11.08 billion, down from $11.24 billion in the third quarter last year.

Pepsi (NYSE: PEP), which agreed in August to buy Minneapolis-based PepsiAmericas Inc. (NYSE: PAS), said beverage volume was down 6 percent, while snacks volume grew 5 percent.

"PepsiCo's diversified food and beverage portfolio and our advantaged business model continued to drive solid results this quarter,” said Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo chairman and CEO, in a statement. “Our teams around the world leveraged PepsiCo's agile go-to-market system to deliver our brands at differentiated value to consumers, who are still feeling the pinch of the global recession despite improving macroeconomic indicators. We will continue to make targeted investments across our entire portfolio, and we expect these to ramp up next year as we begin to realize the benefits of the integration of our two anchor bottlers.”